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If you’ve ever dropped your smartphone on a concrete floor, you know that dreaded feeling as you turn it over to see how badly the screen has cracked — but that stress may soon be a thing of the past. Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have discovered a way to make glass less brittle and less likely to break.
Harnessing light's energy into nanoscale volumes requires novel engineering approaches to overcome a fundamental barrier known as the “diffraction limit.” Now, researchers at the University of Illinois College of Engineering have breached this barrier by developing nanoantennas that pack the energy captured from light sources, such as light-emitting diodes, into particles with nanometer-scale diameters, making it possible to detect individual biomolecules, catalyze chemical reactions, and generate photons with desirable properties for quantum computing.
Harnessing light's energy into nanoscale volumes requires novel engineering approaches to overcome a fundamental barrier known as the “diffraction limit.” Now, researchers at the University of Illinois College of Engineering have breached this barrier by developing nanoantennas that pack the energy captured from light sources, such as light-emitting diodes, into particles with nanometer-scale diameters, making it possible to detect individual biomolecules, catalyze chemical reactions, and generate photons with desirable properties for quantum computing.
Researchers at Northwestern University and Columbia University have developed a tiny nanolaser that can function inside living tissues without harming them. The laser, which is about 1/1,000th the thickness of a single human hair, has the potential to sense disease biomarkers or perhaps treat deep-brain neurological disorders, such as epilepsy.
Researchers at Northwestern University and Columbia University have developed a tiny nanolaser that can function inside living tissues without harming them. The laser, which is about 1/1,000th the thickness of a single human hair, has the potential to sense disease biomarkers or perhaps treat deep-brain neurological disorders, such as epilepsy.
Researchers at Rice's Brown School of Engineering have created what may be viewed as the world's smallest incandescent light bulb. Composed of near-nanoscale materials that absorb heat and emit light, this light source promises to advance sensing, photonics, and perhaps computing platforms beyond the limitations of silicon.
Researchers at Rice's Brown School of Engineering have created what may be viewed as the world's smallest incandescent light bulb. Composed of near-nanoscale materials that absorb heat and emit light, this light source promises to advance sensing, photonics, and perhaps computing platforms beyond the limitations of silicon.
Just as the steam engine set the stage for the Industrial Revolution, and micro transistors sparked the digital age, nanoscale devices made from DNA are opening up a new era in bio-medical research and materials science.
Just as the steam engine set the stage for the Industrial Revolution, and micro transistors sparked the digital age, nanoscale devices made from DNA are opening up a new era in bio-medical research and materials science.
MIT engineers have developed a material that is 10 times blacker than anything that has previously been reported. The material is made from vertically aligned carbon nanotubes, or CNTs — microscopic filaments of carbon, like a fuzzy forest of tiny trees, that the team grew on a surface of chlorine-etched aluminum foil. The foil captures at least 99.995% of any incoming light, making it the blackest material on record.
